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Attachment 1 THE CITY OF \ 111 pLE ASANTONC MEMORANDUM Date: May 8, 2015 To: Mayor and City Council From: Nelson Fialho, City Manager Subject: Response to Questions about Proposed Fee Increases-Status of Implementation of Customer Service Review Team Recommendations. As you may recall, staff committed to reaching out to the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Vitality Committee in advance of bringing the proposed Development Fee adjustments back to the City Council. Staff has nearly completed outreach meetings and would like to share some of the feedback with the Council in advance of the formal hearing. There was some acknowledgement by the Chamber members that the update to the fees was reasonable considering the length of time since they were last raised and the proposed amounts relative to neighboring or comparable cities. However, there is also some philosophical opposition to the idea that the City needs to achieve 100% cost recovery for development services fees as some individuals believe that the development generates ample income for the city through future property taxes, employment, additional spending, etc. Some participants also expressed the opinion that the high cost of fees in California was a detriment to economic development throughout the state. One of the specific topics we were asked about was the status of the Customer Service Review Team (CSRT) recommendations that were formulated in 2007 and 2008. The Customer Service Review Team was assembled by the City Manager and included a group of 14 stakeholders from the Community who had some involvement with the development community. In collaboration with a team of City staff members, the CSRT generated over 40 recommendations intended to streamline the permit review processes in planning, building plan checking and inspection, engineering review of private development and inspection, and fire plan check and inspection services. The majority of these recommendations have been completed including such major items as the creation of the Community Development Department, establishing turnaround goals for processing applications, implementing a permit tracking system, the redesigning of the Permit Center, and the hiring of a Permit Center Manager.